Into the rain

After a week with high summer temperatures and blue skies, a massive low pressure made its way up along the coast just as Elin and I jumped on the bus to Åmsele yesterday morning. Long on our radar, “Isälvsleden” is famous for its eskers that were shaped during the latest glacial maximum, offering magnificent views on all sides.

About 11 km into the trail, the running was briefly interrupted by a bit of rowing across “Åmträsket” which was a lot of fun, reminding me of my childhood and our Norwegian “Askeladden” rowing boat. As always, Elin impressed me with her perseverance and high spirits, even as we had to make our way through an intense rain for the last 20 km of the run before, finally, arriving at the warm train station in Vindeln. With this behind me, I feel as ready as I can possibly be for Fjällmaraton 100k with an all-time record of 395 km of running this month.

Atmosphere

Having barely sent off my book review to Oxford University Press, I accepted another peer review assignment, this time for the journal Atmosphere. Otherwise, I have tried to stay away from work as much as possible over the summer, prioritizing hanging out at Umelagun with the kids (where Eddie just learnt how to swim!) and running around the lake with Anna every morning. Not to mention making risotto with zucchini, halloumi and basil.

Tomorrow morning at 5 am, Elin and I will take the bus up to Åmsele which is the starting point for the 60 kilometres long “Isälvsleden” that I have been dreaming of running for quite some time. With Fjällmaraton 100k just nine days away, it may be stupid to do another ultra adventure but, since I am not planning to run particularly fast on either run, I think my legs will be able to cope.

Tramezzini

Making quasi-traditional Italian sandwiches and kale for dinner with some “Höga Kusten” beer, I am reminded of Fareed Zakaria’s words that “one of the biases of hindsight is to see the events of history as inevitable”. 

Now, political violence has erupted in Tunisia, which for long had been one of the few success stories of the Arabic spring (at least relatively speaking). Still, tied down by youth unemployment and the covid pandemic, the legitimacy of its democracy has been waning for some time. Just like in Lebanon, it seems much easier to know what one is against than taking responsibility for what one wants instead.

Kill or keep

Last night, I watched another David Zaritsky sartorial video about No Time to Die (which is expected to finally be released in October), in which David and Luke Taggart goes through all the different outfits in the movie and decide which ones are a “kill” or a “keep” respectively, reminding me of when I was hanging out at the Mandarin Oriental in Marrakech ;-)

Far from the desert, I have otherwise been busy reviewing another political theory textbook for Oxford University Press and paddling with the kids on the lake. Tomorrow, Eddie is turning nine which feels like a pretty big milestone and, on Sunday, my parents will swing by for a couple of days to celebrate.

Confidence building

After all my injuries, it felt good to be able to run 30 km along Tavelsjöleden without even the slightest of incidents. Taking it slow on all technical parts and speeding up in between, Joacim and I picked the perfect morning for trail running. Finishing, as tradition now has it, with pizza at Sundlingska, we got to talk about a wide range of topics, ranging from epidemic reproduction numbers to ultra marathons.

Tempo runs

Today, I finally felt ready to pick up the pace again, running 2 x 6 km around 4:45 min/km. Despite that a full week has passed since my great adventure, I could feel that my legs are not fully recovered yet, making me uncertain if I really dare to add another long run in the two weeks that remain until Fjällmaraton 100k.

Making a summer salad for dinner, I discovered some “Umeå Lager” at Systembolaget. Brewed by our local “U&me Beer”, it is an international style lager with undertones of apricot and herbs, perfect as the temperature is expected to climb back up above 20 degrees over the weekend. 

496 km

After injuring my left foot on my ultra trail adventure last Friday, I have been taking it easy with the kilometres this week, mostly doing recovery-paced runs around Nydalasjön with Anna and making decadent omelettes. 

However, from a friend on Strava, I got a completely crazy idea, namely to run one km on the first day of the month, two on the second day etcetera, all the way until you would get to 496 km (when the month has 31 days). Given my racing schedule for the fall, the first month that I will be able to do this would be January, and to be feasible, I will probably have to run doubles, at least towards the end of the month as it is obviously much easier to run 15 + 15 km than 30 km in one go.

First swimrun

As I hinted yesterday, I have become increasingly intrigued about swimrunning as a sport. A few months ago, I even picked up a pair of dedicated Amphib Bold 2 shoes in size 48 when Salomon had a sale. Though I have been swimming quite a lot over the summer, today was the first time I combined it with running into a true multisport session. Since I still do not have a proper swimrun suit, I used my old rashguard shirt from Hawaii as I swam across Nydalasjön shortly before 7 a.m. Even if I still have to figure out what socks to wear in order to avoid chafing, it was so much fun and I cannot wait to go for a longer session.

Per Angusta Ad Augusta

With the pain in my lower back gone, I felt ready to challenge myself again by rowing ten full kilometres for the first time at USM tonight. 45 minutes of hard work, enough for the mind to drift off completely, be it to Padjelanta, the high country beyond Sarek, future runs along Lithuanian sand dunes, or even backwards in time to Castilla y León when I had never thought of trail running as a sport. 

The other day, I told Anna that I am not sure if I will go on running like this forever, that it might just be a “phase” of sorts, a prolonged mid-life crisis or something. Still, thinking about how much I have improved as a runner over the last three years, I cannot help but wondering how far I would actually be able go if I were to continue for another half decade. Obviously, it will always be more about distance than time, and perhaps the inclusion of swimrunning (yes, I am seriously considering registering for Tavelsjö Swimrun in late August) or some Shackletonesque cross-country skiing adventure when that season comes.

Recovery hike

After a night of intense thunder and lightning, the sky cleared, and I was able to take the kids for a first-ever hike around Grössjön. I must say that I was positively surprised by their perseverance despite all the mosquitos.

Outnorth

At 3.30 am, I left my room key in the box and set off on what would turn into a 16 hour long adventure along Kungsleden. Almost immediately, a hard climb up to Aigert started and, by the time I got there, I could read that the section from Aigert to Serve is considered one of the most unforgiving of all on Kungsleden.

While the views were incredible, I really struggled in the strong westernly headwind across blockfields or "Felsenmeer" as the Germans know them (literally "sea of rocks"). Being very careful not to fall, it was hard to keep a decent pace but, after Servestugan, the trail became more runnable with lots of reindeer making me company.

Despite my abundance of caution, I still misstepped on a loose stone when I was almost at Tärnasjön. At first, I did not make much of it but the pain soon became fairly sharp with every step. Having made my way up to Syter and its mountain cabin, I began to wonder if it would be the end of my run and if I would have to sleep there for the night. However, a couple of nice hikers gave me some paracetamol so, with the pain slightly suppressed, I soldiered on into Syterskalet. Sadly, around the same time, the battery in my phone gave up just as I was passing the most beautiful scenery. Limping along in the rain, the last twenty kilometres were rather miserable and, by the time I made it to Hemavan, all restaurants had of course already closed. At least I was able to make myself some hot tea and take a long warm shower.

While I may have wished for better weather and no accidents, I am still very happy with my expedition and what I got to experience. Hitchhiking down to Tärnaby this morning, I was able to get on an earlier bus to Umeå so, all in all, I was away for less than 60 hours and got to see so much of Vindelfjällen.

Långflyttje

The bus ride was long but the award immense as I made it up to the mountains and Ammarnäs. Going for a first run to Långflyttje, I was reminded of last summer in Kiruna where every run would come with hundreds of meters of climb. 

Taking it slow, I finished The Topeka School by Ben Lerner over a Budvar at dinner, an American Bildungsroman full of references that made me smile. Hopefully, someone else will find it equally worthwhile as I will not be able to bring anything but the most essential on my run tomorrow.

Greek yoghurt

Despite having “dunderladdat” myself with Greek yoghurt and honey from Peloponnesus, I once again failed to run 5k in under 20 minutes this morning at Campus Arena. Three kilometres into the run, I could feel that I simply did not have the stamina to sustain a sub 4 min/km-pace so, with my upcoming trail adventure in mind, I decided to stop right there. Though only lasting for such a short time, I knew going in that this kind of effort was always going to be painful and, as such, I cannot decide if I was too kind or too harsh on myself?

Pancake planning

After a morning swim in the lake, I am back making pancakes and preparing for my mountain trail adventure. Talking to our new neighbour, he told me that he has done the run between Ammarnäs and Hemavan in the past but with a couple of overnight stops. Since I will do it all in one go (and considering how I felt when finishing Mörbylångaleden back in May), I know I will be pretty exhausted by the time I reach Hemavan so I have decided to change the timing of my run, meaning that I will now take the bus up to Ammarnäs already on Thursday, sleep one night there and then start directly after breakfast rather than at lunch time. This change also has the advantage that I will not have to do the final descent down to Hemavan in the dark with my headlamp but instead be able to run the entire trail in daylight.

Egia Enea

Last night, an intense thunderstorm passed over Tomtebo, reminding me of long-gone summers in Örebro or Vienna. Today brought yet more rain but, as the sky gradually cleared, I could not resist a recovery run around the lake, bringing my weekly total volume back above 80 km.

In four days, I will take the bus up to Ammarnäs for my toughest challenge yet so the coming days will be mostly rest and recovery while Anna plans to stay two nights at a hotel downtown attending an online mini-version of the Gregynog summer school on post-international politics. Before she left, I made some pan fried salmon with sundried tomatoes and spinach together with a glass of wine from Orozko above the Bay of Biscay.

Sundlingska

To get some extra elevation in preparation for Fjällmaraton 100k, I ran Tavelsjöleden in the opposite direction today together with my ultra-runner friend Niklas. In the end, we only managed to get 575 meters of climb though but we definitely picked the right day with mostly cloudy skies, finishing at the restaurant “Root” at Sundlingska Gården with a super-delicious pizza.

Vindelfjällen

Under blue skies, I went for a morning run down to USM for some strength training. Once back home, I made coffee in the new and shiny red Bialetti, unfolded my map of Vindelfjällen and started dreaming about my upcoming run between Ammarnäs and Hemavan. Last night, I booked a room at Hemavans Högfjällshotell so now my fate is sealed. While different sources give slightly different distances ranging from 78 to 82 kilometres, the total climb seems to be around 2,700 meters, making the trail quite similar to what I will experience in August when doing Fjällmaraton 100k. Even if I will not be chasing a FKT this time, I know it will be incredibly challenging with possibly unpredictable weather conditions.

Hopefully, tomorrow’s run along Tavelsjöleden with Niklas will be slightly less extreme. For tomorrow, I plan to run in the first iteration of the Hoka Torrent which I bought last year in February but have so far only taken to 90 kilometres, mostly because I bought the second iteration when I urgently needed a pair of shoes up in Kiruna. Beyond these two runs, I will try to get one more longer effort into my planning before I start tapering for Fjällmaraton 100k. Ideally, I would like to check out the 60 km long Isälvleden between Åmsele and Vindeln but the logistics are complicated to say the least.

Paddling

Despite having lived next to the lake for five years, it is only recently that we have fully discovered what treasure it is, from cross-country skiing in the winters to wetsuit swimming in the summers. Today, with Anna away working on her PhD, the kids and I were able to add canoeing to our list of lake activities.

On Saturday, my ultra-runner friend Niklas and I plan to log about 35 km along Tavelsjöleden, running uphill from Umeå to Sundlingska Gården. And next Friday, I will attempt to run all 80 km from Ammarnäs to Hemavan on my own. Ideally, I would have preferred to have some super-high volume weeks with, say, 21 km per day, leading up to Fjällmaraton 100k in early August. However, there is simply no way I can find the time for running that much every day so instead I am going for a more polarized approach with a number of longer runs and plenty of rest days in between.

Seychelles

Ever since I supervised a masters student who did his Minor Field Study (MFS) in the Seychelles back in 2016, I have been eyeing an island escape suitable for those darkest of November nights. As such, after having to cancel a number of award tickets due to the pandemic, Anna and I just booked two tickets with Ethiopian Airlines for 105,000 points roundtrip Umeå-Mahé on 23 November. Once on the island, we have booked an Airbnb apartment with our own kitchen for all five nights as most resorts on the Seychelles seem to offer questionable value for money. Obviously, it is anyone’s guess if it will actually be possible to travel by then but, with award travel, it does not really cost anything to dream.

Panama

Waking up to another day with blue skies, my mother and I went for an eight km recovery run around Stensö followed by a most delightful swim in Kalmarsund. Being here has been “vacation” in the truest sense of the word and, to make the picture complete, I even found an old Panama hat from Marks & Spencer in Cambridge many summers ago.

Heat ≠ Rasmus

Although 6-7 degrees cooler than in 2019, the summer heat definitely got me again this afternoon as I raced Malkars 21k through the streets of Kalmar. Despite massive support along the course from Eddie, my parents and friends, I failed miserably at setting a new PR. While I am still waiting for the official chip time, Strava registered a time of 1 hour and 43 minutes or about eight minutes slower than my current half marathon PR. In my defence, I should say that I at least gave it all I had with an average heart rate of 171. Despite this, my hopes of running sub 1:30 faded already three kilometres into the race as my body simply could not dissipate the heat.

Canadian

Though the result of linguistic confusion, “Canadian style canoes” or “Kanadensare” as they are known in Swedish, were very much a thing of my childhood and my “kollo” summers at Ekenäs. Every day at kollo (what is known as “holiday club” in the UK), we got to choose what activity to do and I remember almost always picking canoeing.

35 years later, my mother joined Eddie and me for some paddling along the canals of Kalmar this morning, checking out my old “gymnasium” Stagneliusskolan (seen in the picture above) as well as the castle. On the return, we got to see a couple of herons which are really impressive birds close up.

Pedal boating

Yesterday, Eddie and I made it down to Kalmar with the train. Greeted by my parents at the station, it was the first time they got to hug their grandson since the beginning of the pandemic and, seeing their fond reunion, it was hard not to shed a tear. 

Slightly exhausted after the long journey with unusually little sleep on the night train, both Eddie and I ended up sleeping for many hours in the rain. Despite my mother’s initial protests due to the lingering rain, I was then able to convince her to go for a morning run, a run that she thoroughly enjoyed. Afterwards, Eddie and I took the bus over to Öland for some epic pedal boating and swimming at Talludden under dramatic skies.